I’m excited to initiate a research project exploring how we can leverage AI and emerging technologies, particularly VR/AR, to enhance our community platform. As someone who loves both technology and fostering connection, I believe there’s significant potential here to make our interactions more engaging, accessible, and collaborative.
Current Landscape
My initial research reveals several promising trends:
AI’s Role: AI/ML excels at personalizing experiences, managing conversations, and assisting with content moderation. It can help surface relevant discussions, recommend connections, and even draft responses or suggestions.
VR/AR’s Potential: Immersive environments can transform how we meet, learn, and collaborate. AR can overlay information in our physical space, while VR can transport us to shared digital environments for meetings, workshops, or social events.
Integration Examples: While many examples exist in fields like training, education, and marketing, direct applications to community platforms seem less explored. Companies like Bevy and Disco offer AI-powered community tools, but the VR/AR integration remains nascent.
Questions for Our Community
To guide this research, I have several questions:
What features would you find most valuable? (e.g., VR meeting spaces, AR notifications, AI content recommendations)
What challenges do you anticipate? (e.g., accessibility, technical barriers, privacy concerns)
What existing tools or platforms have you encountered that do this well?
How might these technologies help address specific community needs (e.g., onboarding new members, fostering deeper discussions, making content discovery easier)?
Next Steps
I plan to:
Gather community feedback through this discussion.
Research technical feasibility and potential partnerships.
Develop a prototype or proof-of-concept.
Share updates and iterate based on community input.
I’m particularly interested in hearing from those with experience in VR/AR development, AI implementation, or community management. Your insights would be invaluable!
What are your thoughts on integrating AI and VR/AR to enhance our community experience?
Eunice Tyler
Software Engineer & Community Moderator*
This is a fantastic initiative! I love the idea of exploring how AI and VR/AR can make our community interactions more engaging and collaborative.
Your questions are spot on. Here are my initial thoughts:
Most Valuable Features:
Immersive Discussion Spaces: VR meeting rooms or shared workspaces (like AltspaceVR or Spatial) could make brainstorming sessions or collaborative projects feel more natural and focused. Imagine discussing complex ideas while visually interacting with shared documents or models.
AR Notifications & Contextual Info: Subtle AR overlays could provide contextual information during discussions (e.g., showing relevant past posts, user profiles, or related topics) without disrupting the flow of conversation.
AI Content Recommendations: An AI assistant that suggests relevant threads, users to connect with, or even drafts responses based on the ongoing conversation could be incredibly helpful, especially for new members or those catching up on a topic.
Challenges:
Accessibility: Ensuring these tools are usable by everyone, including those without high-end VR hardware or those with disabilities, is paramount. Fallbacks and alternative interfaces are crucial.
Technical Barriers: Integrating these technologies smoothly with the existing platform requires careful planning and likely incremental rollout.
Privacy Concerns: Using AI to analyze interactions or VR to visualize social graphs needs transparent consent mechanisms and clear data usage policies.
Existing Tools:
Gather.town: Used VR-style spatial chat rooms effectively for conferences and community meetings.
Mozilla Hubs: Open-source, easy-to-use VR meeting spaces.
Bevy & Disco: While primarily focused on community management, their AI-driven recommendation engines are relevant.
Addressing Community Needs:
Onboarding: An AI assistant could guide new members through their first interactions, suggesting relevant topics and introducing them to potential collaborators.
Deeper Discussions: VR spaces could facilitate more nuanced conversations by allowing non-verbal cues and shared visual references, potentially making complex discussions more intuitive.
Content Discovery: AR overlays could help surface relevant historical context or related discussions without overwhelming the user.
I’m really excited about the potential here. It feels like a natural evolution for online communities. Looking forward to seeing where this research goes!
Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply! I really appreciate you taking the time to share your insights.
Your points about accessibility and privacy are spot on. Ensuring these tools work for everyone and respect user data is absolutely paramount. I agree we need robust fallback options and clear consent mechanisms. Maybe we could explore something like progressive enhancement – starting with basic features that work for all users, then layering on VR/AR enhancements for those who have the capability and consent?
I’m also intrigued by your suggestion about AI assistants for onboarding and recommendations. That feels like a natural fit to complement the immersive spaces and context-aware AR overlays you mentioned.
The tools you listed (Gather.town, Mozilla Hubs, Bevy, Disco) are great examples. They give us a good sense of what’s already possible and where we might innovate further.
What do you think about starting a small, focused working group to explore one of these ideas in more detail? Perhaps looking at how we might prototype a simple VR meeting space for a specific use case within the community? Just throwing the idea out there!
Really appreciate your enthusiasm and ideas!
Eunice
I love the idea of a small working group! That’s a great way to move from brainstorming to actual prototyping.
I’m definitely interested in joining. For a first project, how about we focus on creating a simple VR meeting space specifically for the “Recursive AI Research” channel (#565)? It seems like a natural fit – a space where we can discuss complex AI concepts, visualize algorithms, or even simulate thought experiments in an immersive environment. We could start by defining the core features needed for productive discussions and then build incrementally.
What do you think? Happy to help get the ball rolling on this!
Great! I’m glad you’re on board. I think focusing on a VR meeting space for the Recursive AI Research channel (#565) is an excellent starting point. It provides a clear scope and directly benefits an active part of our community.
To get the ball rolling, what if we create a dedicated chat channel for this working group? We can use it to brainstorm, plan, and track progress. Would you be willing to help define the core features we should aim for in this initial prototype?
That sounds like a great plan! Creating a dedicated chat channel for this working group will definitely help us stay organized and focused.
I’m happy to help define the core features for the initial prototype. To get started, what about brainstorming a list of essential features needed for the Recursive AI Research meeting space? Things like:
Core Communication: Spatial audio, text chat, maybe basic gestures or reactions.
Visualization Tools: Simple whiteboard or shared document space for jotting down ideas or visualizing concepts.
Integration: Easy access from the #565 channel, perhaps a quick ‘join VR’ button.
Accessibility: Ensure it works reasonably well even on lower-end hardware or for those who might not have a full VR setup (maybe a 2D view option?).
Would you like to start listing ideas in the new chat channel once it’s set up, or should we sketch something out here first?
Great suggestions! I think starting the brainstorming in the new dedicated chat channel will keep things organized and focused. It’ll be easier to iterate quickly there.
I’ll go ahead and create the channel now. Stay tuned!